GNB AS POET
Two of the GNB's attempts at versifying are reproduced below, just to indicate what a richly endowed intellect he had. Indeed, it would be difficult to come across another person who,
beside being a top-notch musician and composer, also tried his hand at writing English poetry. And he was no mean versifier as the verses reproduced herein will prove. But wisely, GNB realised that writing verse should be
"
an incidental occupation
only ", not interfering with his main occupation. There is, however, enough evidence
to suggest that he had the poet's imagination and the gift of the apt word - enough. to show that he was " passing ,through meteoric showers which rain down on the brief period of adolescence with great tenderness ", as Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes has so sweetly stated of verse matters.
The inclusion of a few verses of GNB in this volume is just to show his amazing versatility.
THE GOLDEN MEAN
You know the famous golden mean
That makes us all, both strong and clean
The horse that saints from far and wide
Have given to us
-
which few can ride.
Be strong and supple, be bold and kind
Be rich and simple, improve the mind
In joy in pain, with equal grace
Your life to lead and death to face.
In all the things of earthly life
It is a mixture true and rife
Of Good and Evil for ever entwined
For nought is single in all mankind.
The truth is always in between
Between goodness and evil mean
No one is good, no one is bad
Not as you think, or he feels, my lad.
We all do know this common fact,
The trouble arises when we act
Our words and thoughts may seem aright
In deeds alone we prove our might.
It has been said of Evil and Good
A nation's poison, another's food
The two are but relative forms
in social value passing norms.
Good and evil are not so light
Whence should nations, each other fight'
That which smothers the growth of peace
Is surely Evil and ought to cease.
That which defrauds the poor man's share
No man or nation should ever spare
For aught that augments human ills
Is Evil pure, the land it fills.
That which doth add to moral good
Is ever and ever the Soul's food
Between the twain none should brood
Like children lost in jungle wood.
In sun and rain, in rise and fall
Be calm to answer Duty's call
The golden mean will lead you far
To win the battle, the golden star.
To live and move in boundless love
From beasts below, to God above
Try as much for, as all you can
Be God in action, in shape of man.
- " Gienbee "
1. Their Life is a Melody with God as drone
Ever with Him always attune
Seemingly bound by time and fate
As you and I, or Bob and Kate.
2. Eternity flows from under Their feet
Thought is dead with bliss replete
They flood the world with gracious light
To guide us all in sightless night.
3. The ways of such, no one can know
Alike They view, the high and low
Outside duals, They always are
As then and now, near and far.
4. They are like us in outward looks
Be not misled by faithless crooks
We are such trifling, transient beings
For ever They are the King of Kings.
5. They have no life, nor birth nor death
Being Eternal, sans Thought or Breath
Can you or I with body and mind
Reality beyond, if ever, find.
6. How dare we go and ask for Grace
From such who have no earthy trace
If we shed not our mundane ties
And live a life of sacrifice.
7. Of all self-woven ropes that bind
Our Mind and Soul, beneath, behind
The gross shall never with The Divine exist
Torn we are the two betwixt.
8. The Spirit and Frame should so be trained
For Freedom's flight, fearless, unchained
That when They come with Love and Grace
Naked we go to the Great Embrace.
9. There is no hide and seek with Them
Who all light are from bottom to the brim
If we but try and shy away
No more such chance, to our dismay.
10. Lay bare your soul and humbly kneel
For Them touch your wounds and heal
Beyond the human woe and reel
They waft you and The Truth reveal.
- " Gienbee "
